Historic Strides

As the date of the Trek approaches three members have had to withdraw.

Both Ron and Richard have had unexpected work conflicts arise, and Joey’s schedule makes traveling 5 hours from NJ into the Adirondacks a difficult feat.

All is not lost however.  Posts about this Trek on Living History Library sparked the interest of a new person, Daniel (yes another one )  Although he had some suitable equipment, with less than a month to go, he’s quickly gathering the supplies and making everything else he needs from scratch.

So current Trek companion lineup looks like this:

• Dan C. (me)
• Sarah (my wife)
• Sydney (our daughter)
• DJ
• Amy
• Samantha (DJ & Amy’s daughter)
• Casey (DJ & Amy’s other daughter)
• Daniel P.

That puts us under the threshold for needing a “Wilderness Area” permit, which makes life easier in some respects.  The flip side of that is Ron, Richard, and Joe were all seasoned woodsmen and were a great asset for the Trek.  But sometimes life gets in the way.

I am very pleased to announce that Keira is doing fantastic. Her throat cultures show no major infections and the few minor bacteria types discovered are quickly quashed with antibiotics.

Keira stands tall on her “Mima’s” anvil.

 

Of course lung infections are only half the battle; Keira still has to take replacement enzyme to be able to digest most foods. But even in that area Keira has managed to gain weight and now falls in the “normal” range for her age.

One of the key components in the manufacture of nearly all our gear has been cordage of one variety or another. So far we’ve used:

• Canvas ties
• Sinew
• Raw hide strips
• Rope

Our latest two trials involved working with raw hide and making our own rope.

  What Amy is doing is turning 3 hooks. Those hooks each have 2 lines of twine on them for a total of 6 lines. However, they are connected to a single point on the other end. When they turn they twist together; at first the pairs twist up from 6 to 3, then the 3 twist together into 1.

  The first image shows the completed rope. The large wooden object is a “wrench” and it controls the how tight the final twist is. Finally, in the second picture, the extra fauzings are being quickly torched off. This makes the rope smoother and gives it better “hand”.All together we made 3 ropes. Although they were a smaller diameter than we had originally planned (approx 5/16″), they’ll still function beautifully and will probably get used to tie items to our packs.